1 Prof. Values & Personal Commitment – Miss Whiteman's ePortfolio

September 21, 2018

Gender Discrimination and Stereotypes

Gender Discrimination

Gidden and Sutton’s Sociology (8th Edition), section Gender and Sexuality (pages 636-339).

A specific section of the given reading particularly caught my interest, Black feminism. In this subsection, a point was raised by Bell Hooks which I found really interesting, as I had never thought about it in that way before. Hooks wrote how many feminists decided that the general root of their oppressions was due to the fact that the patriarchy was “inadequate” and that because of this, it should be seen as a universal phenomenon. However, Hooks makes a very valid argument, that the concept does not allow for any variety in history or culture and instead ignores any influences made by race, class or ethnicity – any of which may have an effect on the nature of a woman’s status.

Numerous white feminists have written about the difference in levels of self-esteem between white girls and black girls. They claim that black girls tend to have a higher self esteem, which is evidential through their confidence and assertiveness. According to Hooks, this would be because of their upbringing by parents and teachers, who would have wanted to introduce these traits to their daughters/pupils intentionally, to “uplift the race”.

During the campaign for woman’s rights, early black suffragettes supported the movement. However, as it continued, many realised that even if woman gained more rights, they would still be discriminated against for their race. The question of race could not be ignored. By fighting for gender equality, they would still only have won half of the battle as the course of action did not take racism into account.

Gender Stereotypes

During an input, we were shown a video which explored various stereotypes which follow the phrase “like a girl”. This video is so powerful as it not only shows men’s primary conceptions of the phrase (which would be the expected) but also women’s perceptions of themselves. After showing a few examples of what different people think “throw like a girl” or “fight like a girl” means, the video then shows what a younger girl perceives these actions to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

It seems a shame that young girls are interpreting “like a girl” as the stereotype that I would have expected to have started to fade away at this point in time. I feel that as a society, we should be teaching young girls and boys to overcome the stereotypes that the older generations have followed for so long and instead encourage them to be who they want to be and like what they want to like regardless of whether it is seen as for a girl or boy.

October 18, 2017

Finding your voice

Our first lecture in the values module looked at the themes ’empathy and the sociological imagination’. Before this input, we were asked to look through various materials and one video, a talk by Clint Smith, in particular has stuck with me over the last few weeks.

Sharing your thoughts and opinions is a struggle that many people have throughout their lives. Whether this is due to a fear of public speaking, anxiety or just not feeling comfortable in speaking out, it is an issue that can affect both yourself and people around you.

In this video, Smith discusses how at the start of the school year, he reinforces the idea of “telling your truth”. At several points in the video, he revisits the idea and comments on that fact that many people are “listening to what people are saying but barely paying attention to the things they don’t say”. I feel that he is touching on the point that when someone is saying something, there may be an underlying issues. Of course, others may have a different take on this, but this is just what I think it means. Another comment made by Smith which has really stuck with me is – “validation doesn’t need words to endorse its existence”. I really feel that this is a strong statement, explaining that we don’t need people to give us permission or approval in what we say or share. The only validation we need in order to share our feelings and beliefs, is our own.

As a discussion point, we were asked to make a note of how certain issues could be seen as both personal troubles and public issues. By looking more in depth into this issue, we can see how it affects not only yourself, but also other people.

Not being able to speak up in certain situations can clearly be seen as a personal trouble. It may be because you feel you may be judged or that you worry that you may offend someone with differing opinions. This is applicable to all ages, especially schools, I feel. We’ve all been there; not wanting to speak out in class in case our answer is wrong and all the other kids laugh. It’s something that the majority of pupils go through because no one wants to embarrass themselves in front of their peers. Some people may just feel that they are not worthy enough to share their opinions if it is with people of higher status and instead just go with popular opinion. It is unfortunate that people feel this way, but it does happen. Smith states that often instead of sharing our true thoughts, we are just “telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear”. I feel that this is something that everyone is guilty of. However, I wouldn’t say that this is always a bad thing and that sometimes, in order to save hurting someones feelings, it may actually be better to tell them what they want to hear rather than what you actually think. (Again, just my opinion; others may differ).

As well as a personal trouble, this can also be a public issue. If no one speaks up to protect someone or something that requires assistance, it may be defenceless and left open to mistreatment, whether that is verbally or physically. This may be rather excessive in some circumstances, but sometimes it is the case. Regarding less extreme circumstances, simply not sharing ideas and thoughts could potentially lead to bad decisions being made in a group because there were little options.

This issue is particularly important to me as being in lecture theatres full of people, I understand why some people may find it difficult to speak up and share their opinions. The thought of being judged by your fellow peers seems scary, but we all just need to remember that we are all in the same position. We may have differing opinions, but surely being in a module focused on Values, we would know not to judge others for their ideas and feelings.

October 13, 2017

Resource Allocation Workshop

During a recent values workshop, led by Derek, we were put into five tables and given an envelope with various stationary supplies. Although at the time I didn’t think much into the point of this, we were actually going through a valuable process that would teach us the importance of equality and unconscious/conscious bias.

We were told that with the contents of our envelope, we had to come up with an idea that would be helpful for new students coming to the University. The envelope that our table was given did not contain a lot. We looked around the room to see how everyone else was reacting to the limited number of items provided for the task, however we instead saw tables with mountains of supplies, including ‘luxuries’ such as coloured paper and sellotape. Immediately, our table discussed how unfair it was that some tables had been given so much as we were given so little. Regardless of this, we carried on with the task and came up with ideas of how we could best use what we had.

After sharing our initial ideas with the whole group, we then had to make it with our materials. As we were all working on our products, our group noticed that the front two tables were getting a lot of attention and praise from Derek yet we were getting none. I didn’t take much more notice, instead thought that it was probably only because they were the groups closest the him. I felt that with the little supplies we had, our group had done rather well in executing our idea and that Derek would see that when we presented it.

The front two table presented their products first. Derek gave them a lot of praise and raved about what they had come up with and why it was exactly what he was looking to come from this task. The third table were also praised although he was less enthusiastic than he had been previously. However, when it got to the last two tables, he couldn’t seem less interested. As we presented our product, he wasn’t engaged or even listening, and at one point he was even on his phone! By now, it had become very clear that the groups had not been treated equally during this task.

Derek then revealed that this had been the purpose of the workshop, to highlight the issues involving inequality in a classroom and to demonstrate how this can make people feel when they are experiencing it. This is such an important lesson as it is something that as future teachers, we will all potentially face. When we discussed it, it became clear that the two groups who were given the least resources had noticed the considerable difference in resources and attention. However, the groups that had been provided with the most hadn’t even noticed that anyone had any less than they did or were being treated differently.

The task highlighted how important it is to treat everyone equally because if someone feels that they are being treated differently to others, it can result in them feeling really defeated and demotivated. Especially in schools, this may cause children to become less enthusiastic about learning and even grow to dislike school, which would no doubt affect their attitude towards education and its importance.

This input was such an important lesson, especially for people who will be working with children who come from various backgrounds. It is essential that all children feel valued and included within a classroom, which is intended to be a safe environment where pupils feel comfortable and respected.

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017

Racism and Discrimination Input

Before the lecture, I didn’t know much about the the terms other than their basic definitions. I watched the three videos given to us which gave me a much greater understanding of each term (racism and discrimination especially). The talk that Clint Smith did on how he was raised was especially informative because I had never thought about it from that perspective before. I thought the reading we were given from Giddens was also really helpful in describing ethnicity and discrimination in a more detailed way.

These were my initial thoughts on what each term meant:

Race – Your race is the social/cultural background that a you come from. I then moved on to thinking about racism, which is when somebody is discriminated against directly because of their race. This can be for many reasons but the first one I thought of was because some people may have the mindset that their race is more superior than others.
Ethnicity – The social/cultural background that a person is born in/grows up in where they share the same culture, language and history etc. They may also follow the same beliefs because it could be a tradition of that certain ethnic background to follow a specific religion.
Prejudice – When you make a prejudgment on somebody but do not have any facts or evidence to back it up. This can also involve being bias or hostile towards someone for no real reason.
Discrimination – Mistreating someone or treating them unfairly. This could be due to their race, age, gender or religion etc.

During the lecture, we were told more about each term and how significantly they affected so many people’s lives. I did already know that racism has been a massive issue in the past and definitely still is nowadays but it is still so shocking to hear stories about how far racism can go. This can be seen clearly in various examples we were given during the lecture, but one story stuck with me in particular.

Emmet Till was a young boy who was accused of ‘flirting’ with the woman in a store and was then brutally murdered because of it. The case was taken to court but purely because Emmet and his Uncle (who was identifying the killers) were black and the accused was white, the jury made a quick decision to clear all charges. Only this year, the woman admitted that she had fabricated the whole story and that Emmet was completely innocent. Circumstances like this highlight how racism can escalate to shocking levels, even taking the lives of the innocent.

After the input, I rewatched the video which showed Clint Smith talking about his childhood and how his parents brought him up and found it even more powerful. He explained that he had to be raised with different rules to his white friends because of how others may perceive the actions of a black child in comparison to a white one. The fact that two kids could be treated differently for taking part in the same action solely because of the colour of their skin highlights the level of inequality and prejudice against ethnic minorities.

Before this lecture my understanding of racism and discrimination was fairly basic and looking at the resources provided, plus the lecture lead by Derek, really made me think more into the present significance of racism. It is vital for people who are potentially going to be teaching children to understand how important it is to be accepting and treat everybody equally, no matter what ethnic background someone may come from.